Fewer sounds than English!

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters and the language has between 24 to 27 sounds depending on the regional variety. But English has about 40+ sounds with only 26 letters in its alphabet.

How come?
Think about the different ways to pronounce these letters in English:

  • The letter “a” in “car”, “care”, “case.”
    Spanish “a” is pretty much the same across the board.

  • The letter “i” in “litter”, “liter”, “light”, “timbre”, “sir.”
    Only one “i” for Spanish. 😁

  • The letter “o” in “no”, “none”, “non”, “women”, “one.” 👀

  • AND MY FAVORITE, the letter “u” in “tuna”, “use”, “burn”, “cut”, “busy”, “fun” 🤯

  • and on and on.

    Spanish phonology is less complex than English which might explain why adults who learn Spanish pronunciation potentially have an “easier” time than the converse (Adult Spanish speakers learning English pronunciation) thereby giving us a stronger foreign accent. 😬

“Fastest” but not really fastER!

Spanish is considered one of the fastest-spoken languages in the world. This is not because native speakers talk faster, but because the average syllable per second rate is higher.

That means that on average, the amount of information given by a Spanish speaker is similar to the amount given by an English speaker in the same span of time.

Example:
1. I’d love to go to college (7 syllables total)

2. Me encantaría ir a la universidad (14 syllables)

Both of these sentences are spoken in about the same about of time even though Spanish has double the number of syllables. 🧮

Second most studied language

After English, Spanish is the second most studied language in the world, with over 22 million students learning it in more than 110 countries.

Third Most-Used Language Online

After English and Chinese, Spanish is the third most-used language on the internet. This reflects its status as a global language, and its use is growing rapidly on social media and digital platforms.

📚 💻 📓

The Lizard 🦎

The phrase “El lagarto” literally means “the lizard.” The cool thing is how this phrase “El lagarto” entered the English language as one single word:

El lagarto = the lizard
El-lagarto = the-lizard
Ellagarto
Allagarto
Alligator

So a strict translation of “the alligator” back into Spanish would give us “the the-lizard, with the extra ‘the’
🦎 ➡️ 🐊